ADDEESS 
AT THE OPENING OF THE SESSION 1889-90. 
BY REV. PROFESSOR CHAPMAN, LL.D., 
President. 
Ladies and Gentlemen, — 
Once more we are permitted by a kind Providence 
to meet together in this place, now becoming historic, to prosecute 
the purposes for which the Plymouth Institution exists. Some 
whose faces were in years past familiar, and who in one form or 
another rendered good service to the cause of Science, Literature, 
or Art, are no longer with us. Let the memory of every one who 
has ever contributed any item to the world's sum of truth, or 
inspiration, or enjoyment of the good and beautiful, be respectfully 
cherished by those of us who have yet to perform our part towards 
the intellectual and moral development of the race. The years 
roll on, the surface of the earth varies, actors on the stage of 
human life flit across the scene and vanish from view, and so 
" the old order change th " \ but men still live and crowd one on 
the other, intellects crave for light, conduct needs guidance and 
healthful stimulus, and the wide realms of external Nature and 
of Mind have yet to be more thoroughly explored in view of 
the coming time when, having interpreted Nature in obedience 
to her own ways, her secrets shall be more perfectly unlocked, 
and man become in reality, as he is now in word and promise, 
the crown of Nature, the inheritor and ruler of the riches of the 
earth and air and sky. 
It is a feature of our times, very interesting and agreeable 
to all who are heartily concerned in the advancement of mankind 
in culture and happiness, that there exist around us ever-increasing 
vol. x. s 
